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Dohwar
The Dohwar are a curious race of semi-aquatic, flightless avian whose features most closely resemble penguins. Growing on average to four feet in height, they have a pudgy frame and very short legs that lend them a slow, waddling gait when they walk. They have black plumage with white feathers on their chest and belly, and white accents and tufts around their eyes. Dohwar have two distinct fangs that protrude from their beaks, an adaptation for eating the exotic foods of wildspace. They prefer to wear shockingly garish clothes when they congregate socially; yet when engaging in trade, they usually hide their faces under heavy cloaks and shadowy hoods so as to pass for small people of whatever race they are trading with. Their inclusion in the Aearee family tree is contested. A few sages argue that the Dohwar were never native to Toril, but rather an interloper race, first brought to the Realms by members of the enigmatic spelljamming race known as the Mercane (called by some the Arcane. But scholars among the Dohwar insist that their race first arose on Toril before they left the Realms to sail the Sea of Night. Those Realms sages that count the Dohwar among the Aearee believe them to be an arctic offshoot of the branch of the Aearee that included the wading subraces adapted to wetland environments, such as the Eblis. Dohwar sages, however, make grandiose claims that they are the root stock from which all other Aearee descend. They assert further that the Dohwar were indeed the first intelligent race to arise on Toril, frolicking upon the glaciers and in the depths of Toril’s frozen seas during the great ice age that preceded the Days of Thunder. As Toril thawed, they allege that the other Aearee forms diverged from the Dohwar mold as they spread out to occupy other ecological niches. Most Torilian sages find such bombastic claims highly dubious at best. Regardless of whether they once inhabited the Realms, the Dohwar are no longer native to Toril in the modern era. They are presumed to have been hunted to extinction by white dragons sometime after -30,000 DR. The few individuals currently present in the Realms are travelers from across the Sea of Night by means of spelljamming ships. Dohwar legends tell that survivors of the dragon onslaught (following the first Flight of Dragons) indentured what was left of their race to the Mercane in exchange for safe passage off-world. Another tale holds that the Dohwar were sold to the Mercane by the Aearee-Quor. Most scholars view this account as doubtful, as the Aearee-Quor were never known to have spelljammer helms. Other sages counter that the Aearee-Quor need not have been seeking spelljammer helms, but rather may have traded the Dohwar for a pittance simply to rid themselves of the little nuisances. During their apprenticeship with the Mercane, the Dohwar learned their craft well. Today they are powerful and wily merchants known throughout wildspace. They consider themselves rivals of the Mercane. Although the Mercane, if pressed, do not admit to considering the Dohwar at all. The Dohwar period of indenture ended thousands of years ago—-some suggest their servitude was terminated prematurely by the Mercane themselves. Since that time the Dohwar have claimed a new homeworld—-a small ice planet of unknown location—-and have acquired an expansive fleet of merchant ships that trade between dozens of known worlds. Dohwar are aggressive merchants with poor social skills. Most races find them to be greedy, pushy, persistent, abrasive and thoroughly annoying. Dohwar favor hard-sell tactics, double-teaming their targets with a non-stop barrage of sales pitches and offers to buy items for paltry sums. Gnomes, however, are fascinated by the little avians, and delight in the strange goods they offer for sale. The Dohwar are psionically gifted, which grants them an advantage in trading and negotiation. They can communicate telepathically. Mated pairs of Dohwar (called “mergers”) maintain a permanent psionic link with one another, allowing them to commune silently—without the knowledge of those around them. Dohwar live in communities called “cartels” which are organized like mercantile concerns. Cartels are led by a president or a chairman, and lesser civic leaders have such commercial titles as “executive board member” and “manger”. Some Dohwar prefer to train as fighters, and are skilled in the use of the “weega”, a piercing blade that attaches to the beak. Much like a rapier, Dohwar protectors wield the blade with deadly accuracy and their powerful thrusts can penetrate plate mail. Dohwar themselves wear bulky armor made of extra thick plate, which provides superb protection though it impedes their mobility. However, with their distinctive waddle, even an unarmored protector cannot count their speed as an asset in combat, so mobility is easily sacrificed for the extra protection the armor affords. Dohwar tactics usually involve standing their ground at a choke-point and preventing the enemy from passing. Dohwar protectors are impressive aerial combatants when they ride their winged boars into battle. Space Swine: Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, MC9 Dohwar elite cavalry units wield lances and coordinate their attacks in dynamic, complex formations that often take their opponents by surprise. Their winged boar mounts bear razor-sharp tusks that can gore and maim as they fly past. They are trained to target an enemy mount’s wings so as to remove it from combat and render the rider ineffectual. War mounts are bred to have a single, six-inch horn sprouting from their foreheads which they can use to impale opponents in deadly dive attacks. Space swine have uncanny senses and make excellent trackers, even through the depths of wildspace. Despite the skills of Dohwar protectors, Dohwar merchants generally prefer to hire much larger and more impressive mercenaries for personal protection. Dohwar traders are routinely accompanied by a contingent of griff guards wherever they travel. Dohwar travel wildspace in spelljammer ships called uspos that also resemble penguins. The ships are as graceful in flight as the husky hucksters they convey; that is to say the ships are awkward, ungainly, and only slightly less flightless than the Dohwar themselves. The sight of an uspo silhouette spotted descending from the sky often sends potential customers scurrying to lock their doors and shutter their windows until such time as the pesky penguinoids give up and go away. Racial Feats Adept Mage Horn (Feat) Prerequisites: Unicorn You can manipulate up to two objects at a time with your Mage Horn ability, and can use it up to 6 times per day instead of the usual 3. In addition, you can "scoop" any number of small objects together so that they "count" as one object, as long as the total weight of all lifted objects remains under five pounds. This effectively means you can use Mage Hand to perform basically any activity that could normally be performed with your hooves, including the continued operation of machines or other devices designed to perform a simple repetitive task. Skill checks involving fine manual dexterity such as Crafting checks gain a +4 bonus when performed with the assistance of Adept Mage Horn. Mage Horn Mastery (Feat) Prerequisites: Adept Mage Horn Effects: - You can now use Mage Horn At Will. - The maximum amount of weight you can manipulate is equal to 10 pounds times your level. - You can now manipulate a living creature. If they consent to being moved by you, treat as normal. Otherwise, Will save to resist, DC 15 + Wisdom modifier. - You can manipulate magical objects as you would with your hooves, up to and including Activating the item in their usual way. (Note that if the magical item requires a Verbal component to activate, you must supply this to activate the item even though Mage Horn does not usually require a verbal component.) - For all non-magical, non-living, unattended objects and devices, you can manipulate them with greater precision and skill than you normally could with your hooves. Collections of assorted small objects can be lifted simultaneously, sorted, organized, and otherwise arranged. - Powders or liquids can be collected and manipulated with a DC 10 spellcraft check. - A spell check can be made to increase the maximum allowed weight even further. The DC of this spell check is 1 for every additional 20 pounds. (At level 20, the average unicorn can lift their own body weight of around 200 pounds with no spell check. A spell check of DC 10 would let them lift themselves and one friend simultaneously.) - At DM's discretion Category:Dohwar